First Post! First let me say that I'm not sure if this belongs here but Im not sure...Anyway, Ive been trying to reinstall my Windows XP after my WinLoader became corrupt. I DBAN'd my hard drive and tried to install 98SE before using my XP home upgrade disc. However, whenever I try to install 98SE, it fails halfway through. I used my buddy's XP OEM disc to try it that way but that failed too. I think it may be a hardware problem or something, anyone have any ideas?

What happens as far as the failure? Are you getting any errors? More details would be good. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Download and run a drive fitness test on the hard drive from the drive manufacturer's site. If the drive report says the drive has no problems then download and run memtest86 to check the RAM.

More details would 'really' be good. You can go to the following web site to find the manufacturer's drive fitness tests. http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... Also, disconnect any external devices before trying an install.

The place I do volunteer work for also uses d-ban. D-ban can kill a hard drive. We lose 1 in 10 hds to it. These hd's were probably in trouble to begin with though. Try using fdisk (98se bootdisk)to restore the partitions and you may also have to reset the jumpers to cable select. An error in the memory sticks can also prevent an install. If the drive is recognized I would run memtest. And as mentioned above it could be a bad sector on the hard drive. Memory and sectors can create the "Cannot copy ***.dll error.